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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

2014 Cinderella Royal Family 5K

With a 6:30 a.m. start, I was able to “sleep in” the morning of the Royal Family 5K! All kidding aside, I like that the 5K start time is a little bit later than most Disney races. I was glad I didn’t have to be on a bus by 3:45 a.m. for once!

I was excited to introduce my husband and my dad to the runDisney experience – they were excited for their first Disney 5K as well!

After arriving at the 5K reunion area, we met up with Heather and her family.

We also took a family photo! Look at all of those race bibs….there’s a first time for everything!

While waiting to walk to our corrals, I heard my name and it was Ashley! I was excited to finally meet her – and you know what? The morning of the 5K wasn’t the only time we ran into each other throughout weekend (I remember two other times for sure)!

So many people!

I was very proud of my husband for gathering up the courage to complete his first 5K! His friend Randy attempted to photo bomb us but it didn’t quite work out….

I thought the corral thing was very odd this year – we all lined up in an area apart from the starting line (I don’t remember doing this for the 2012 Royal Family 5K). After A runners began the race, B runners were allowed into the starting line area, and so on from there. It made sense and flowed well, but was different from what I remembered.

After a reaaaaally long time (there were 8 minutes between each corral), Corral E was finally able to GO!

This course was the same, typical runDisney 5K – we were led around an Epcot parking lot and in through the back area of the park.

That’s Test Track to the left…

The side of Mexico

I felt as if characters were rather sparse for this race. There were a few (maybe one or two) on the back roads before entering Epcot but the lines were INSANE. I also remember seeing characters in every country the last time I ran this 5K – not so this time around.

As we were strolling past Germany, I took a deep breath in and tried to embrace the moment. Happy Disney music was playing over the speakers, I was with my family doing a 5K, and the world just felt right. You know that feeling?

Well, the giddiness inside of me overflowed and I began skipping.

Disclaimer: Even though a lot of runners/walkers were participating in this race, there was not a crowd near my family or I.

I was being silly and I skipped up beside Randy and said, “Isn’t this FUN?” My dad is a big jokester and started to skip as well. He said, “Look what I can do!” while we all laughed. I spotted Dopey out of the corner of my eye and turned to point him out to my mom. I scanned the crowd behind us and she was nowhere to be seen. My dad also turned and stopped altogether – he had a look of horror on his face.

That’s when I saw my mom get up….off the ground, her mouth dripping with blood. Thankfully, there was a bathroom nearby. I asked what happened – she saw us skipping, so she began skipping, too. As she was mid-air a runner/walker tried to dart by her and caught my mom’s foot. In turn, my mom pretty much face planted on the ground. Not only did her tooth cut into the inside of her lip, her tooth also CHIPPED IN HALF. Only a tiny piece of tooth remained attached to her gum. In my nine years of being a nurse, I’ve never seen a tooth break in half like that.

Thankfully, medics were in decent supply on the course. They were able to give her triple antibiotic cream for her hands and an ice pack for her lip. I was afraid the cut would need stitches because it wouldn’t stop bleeding.

My mom’s a trooper though – she didn’t want to quit, she wanted to finish the race.

After the incident, we didn’t make very many stops along the rest of the course for obvious reasons. My parents continued walking and any time I stopped to take a photo/video on the course, I caught up with them.

Mile 2!

“Backstage” behind the scenes in Epcot – notice the mirror!

As my mom was talking to a medic, these two stopped me – Monica & Walt of Disney Bride & Groom! It was SO nice to meet them, I love reading through their Run Happily Ever After recaps and I’m honored every time they include one of my posts!

The 5K course led us past Spaceship Earth and back out of the park again.

I was highly shocked when Jason began sprinting….and I do mean SPRINTING to the finish line. It took me so much off guard, I had a hard time catching up to him!

After crossing the finish line, we received our medals and snapped a few photos.

We took my mom to the medic tent (an area I’d never seen before, thankfully).

Since we were the only ones in the tent, I snapped this photo because I found it amusing that their stretchers were lounge chairs – makes sense but still made me giggle a little. (Had others been in this area, I would not have taken this photo for privacy and confidentiality reasons.)

By the time we reached the medical area, my mom’s lip was no longer bleeding (only oozing a little). She did not require stitches, but we decided it was in her best interest to have her tooth taken care of that day (if possible).We were very grateful that no major harm was done - it could have been much worse.

Did you know there’s a concierge medical service available to travelers in the Orlando area? In non-emergent cases, health care providers even make “house” calls to hotel rooms! I had no idea!

Our friend (Randy) provided us with the number to call and I spoke with a nice and super helpful attendant about my mom’s issue. Within 5 minutes, my mom was set up with a dentist in the Celebration area for 1 p.m. that afternoon. It took several hours, but her tooth was rebuilt and you couldn’t tell anything was wrong (apart from her swollen lip)! (Please note, we were not provided this number by anyone affiliated with runDisney, Disney, or anyone in the medical area.)

This service is able to take care of a wide arrange of medical needs – with so many people visiting the Orlando area on a daily basis, it’s nice to know that services like this are available. Accidents and emergencies happen and issues arise – I’m thankful my mom was taken care on the same day.

41 comments:

We had to use the medical tent after Christine's first Princess Half. I was allowed in only after she had stabilized. It was scary and I hope to never have to visit one of those tents again. By the way, so sorry about your Mom.....I can't believe during an untimed 5k another runner would do that and not stop. That is just plain awful.

Oh no! Your poor mom! I'm so sorry to hear that this happened to her. So glad to hear that she was able to get such great medical care and have her tooth fixed that day. I hope that she continues to heal up well.

My goodness, I am so sorry this happened to your mom. I hope this doesn't discourage your family from doing another Disney race with you. Glad that she is okay now. Unfortunately I had the pleasure of seeing the inside of the medical tent after the half marathon on Sunday! As far as the 5k, I believe last year was the first year for the corrals and stuff. We ran the race for several years prior and last year was the first year I remembered having a letter on my bib and having multiple starts. We were in corral B this year and the Character lines were extremely long even then! I hope the rest of your vacation went well.

Oh no!! I hope all is well, so sorry you had to get checked out! You are right, I definitely do not remember corrals in the past! It didn't discourage them, but my dad isn't a big fan of crowds already, so he didn't care for that part...

Oh NO! Your poor mom! I was doing a cycling event once and my friend was clipped on her back tire by another cyclist. She went over her handlebars and ended up with a broken tooth and scrapes and bruises. The paramedics were right there...about the only good thing about an accident at an event like that. We were at home, so she was able to go to her own dentist. What an awful thing to happen during a vacation! I hope it didn't put a cloud over the rest of your trip.

I have never signed up to do a 5k yet, I have always be hesitant due to the massive amounts of people. After your review I maybe tempted to run one. It would be fun to run with family for sure! Now to start working on my husband.

Oh my goodness, talk about going from a great time to really scary in just a split second! I am so glad your mom recovered quickly. Thank goodness for medic tents! Did the girl who knocked your mom over even stop to apologize?

Other than that, sounds like you had a fun time and got some great pics. That is awesome you ran into Disney Bride and Groom too!!

So sorry to hear about your Mom, but I'm glad that all is well and that she was able to be seen by a dentist that afternoon. On a happier notes, I'm glad that you were still able to finish the 5k as a family. It seems you all made the best of the situation!

YIKES! So glad your mom is okay, and she's a rockstar for continuing on to finish the race! It seems like Disney is prepared for everything, which is definitely a relief. Congrats to your hubby, too! What a fun family day (other than the incident you guys had, of course), I would LOVE it if my family ran a 5K with me someday...especially if it was a Disney race. :)

I was in carrel C and I found the character lines insane then as well. I can't believe that happened to your mom. Glad the medial staff and conciarge were very helpful. That is just really scary. I did use the medical treatment area after the Princess half for a blister that was forming, but not for anything like what your mom went through. I'm really glad she is OK now.@heatherlas

OMG your poor mom! I'm so glad to hear she's okay, but that would've been so scary! I can't believe she went through and finished! I probably would've had a panic attack if that were me. I'm so paranoid about my teeth - its weird!

I do love that you introduced your family to runDisney. I introduced mine by having them in the Chear Squad.. but I'm hoping one day I'll get my boyfriend to run a race with me :)

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Hi! Welcome to Just Me & My Running Shoes! My name is Karen, I am a 30 year old runner, Disney lover, & Oncology Nurse. I am passionate about volunteering, fitness, traveling, and living an overall healthy lifestyle. Want to contact me? I can be reached at:kren2700@gmail.com.Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!